BTS Rise From Debussy To DJ Swivel With "Euphoria"

Once again, the latest from BTS is setting the internet and social media on fire. But this time, it's also set off "Euphoria"!

The first three minutes of the group's new "Euphoria" video are dominated by Claude Debussy's "Clair De Lune" ("Moonlight") before the dance-pop kicks in. Loaded with visual clues to other BTS content and filled with double meanings, "Euphoria" is an art-pop rabbit hole looking to the future by means of sometimes cryptic references to BTS' past.

Published on April 5, the video for "Euphoria" surpassed 4 million views by the afternoon. The video was directed by Yong Seok Choi and produced by Emma Sung Eun Kim with Big Hit Entertainment as usual leading the way. The video also lists BTS's RM among the song's co-producers.

"Euphoria" follows recent news such as the release of BTS' Face Yourself album in Japan earlier this week as well as gaming company Netmarble's investment of $190 million in Big Hit, which might even go public next year.

The week before, BTS became the first K-pop group to reach 1 million Shazam searches. Also, the Billboard Social 50 chart dated April 7 marks the first time K-pop stars ever took four of the chart's top five spots. BTS came in first, followed by EXO, NCT, Canadian singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes, and GOT7.

Billboard breaks down some of the song's clues and implications for what is coming next. So, for the curious, "Euphoria" is a gateway to a BTS "Wonderland" worth jumping into.

Episodes one and two of the eight-part YouTube Red documentary "BTS: Burn The Stage" are available for free, generating excitement around the world and a slew of user-produced clip-compilations of viewers' favorite scenes. For everyone who followed BTS' American conquest last year, the contemporaneous look behind the scenes is touching and inspiring.

Between these documentary episodes and the BTS' online profiles at their Big Hit Entertainment management, the group members are revealing more and more about themselves. Rap Monster's remix of Fall Out Boy's "Champion" and J-Hope's solo "Airplane" flight have already given us some opportunity to get to know these artists better as individuals, but the YouTube Red footage takes seeing the Bangtan Boys to several new levels, on stage, in hotel rooms, and especially seeing how they depend on each other.

The sizable response to new BTS media online has added to their incredible story, mostly because this documentary footage gives us close-ups and authentic personal time that fans haven't had before. Among the highlights fans have picked out from the two episodes are Jungkook's dancing behind-the-scenes and his exhaustion backstage, Rap Monster losing his passport, J-Hope bringing back dinner for Suga, and how for all of them, their bandmates are consistently their strongest motivation to succeed.

Cross-Pacific Pop: Album Sales Boom For Asian Breakout Solo Artists

We called Lay Zhang a musical diplomat when he was named promotion ambassador for GRAMMY Festival China last April. A Chinese founding member of the Korean-market boy band EXO, Lay's Oct. 19 release, Namanana: 03, has entered new territory for any Mandarin-pop album.

Lay debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 with 23,000 traditional album sales boosted by another 1,000 equivalents from streaming and other digital. The album's 22 tracks are half in Mandarin Chinese and half in English, recreating each of the 11 songs as bilingual.

This success shows that K-pop helps put artists on blast but U.S. album buyers are developing an appetite to go beyond the superficial frame of boy band marketing and fame, also known as "idol groups" in Korea.

The K-pop solo mixtape Hope World by J-Hope from BTS debuted at No. 63 last March on the Billboard 200 and rose from there to No. 38, making him the best-selling K-pop solo artist earlier this year, and Lay's No. 21 is more properly M-pop because of its Mandarin Chinese. That's despite Lay's K-pop roots in EXO.

But meanwhile on Tuesday Oct. 23, J-Hope's BTS bandmate RM delivered a mixtape of his own, titled Mono. With just three days of sales, it debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 for Nov. 3. Traditional album sales were 16,000 plus 5,000 equivalents. Some tracks recall Brian Eno's solo albums, and its subdued and enveloping emotion allows RM's poetics and raps to reach out in a different way. As usual with RM, the word play in English is unexpected and the raps artistic, while his use of Korean, English, or Korean-English together goes wherever he decides to take it.

Terms like "K-pop" or "M-pop" can seem belittling marketing categories, like the term "boy band" or "idol group," but they are useful buckets to compare sales quantities. In general, cross-Pacific pop has had its best album-sales week ever in the U.S. for solo artists, and some tracks even have a Latin feel. However big this new listening culture might grow, it's attracting commercial attention and cash. That's a good sign for any artist who wants to write future chapters in this suspenseful series.

Look out, L.A. Army! On Sept. 11, the GRAMMY Museum will host "A Conversation With BTS," a meaningful sit-down interview with the group and a chance to reflect on BTS' whirlwind year.

The event was announced on Aug. 24, the same day BTS released their follow-up compilation of new and previous tracks titled Love Yourself: Answer. The group's earlier 2018 release Love Yourself: Tearreached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 back in May.

Describing the seven young men from Korea as a "superstar global group," the GRAMMY Museum's summary of the evening says, "From their top-notch performances to the way they interact with their fans, BTS has become a global phenomenon since they debuted in June 2013." While the Museum's Clive Davis Theater's intimate auditorium's seating sold out almost immediately, this will provide BTS an ideal platform to explore the music-first topics host and GRAMMY Museum Artistic Director Scott Goldman has raised with hitmakers and legends, such as those heard on his Required Listening podcast.

The conversation will give the group the opportunity to dive beneath the surface of their pop-idol fame, which is the theme of the music video for "Idol" released on Aug. 24, also available in a remix featuring Nicki Minaj.

Love Yourself: Answer encapsulates the BTS journey leading up to it through their albums LY: Her, LY: Tear and the mysterious LY: Wonder which was hinted at by the video for "Euphoria," which is also the first track on their LY: Answer album. If the cross-references seem dense, there are many more where those came from. While BTS cannot escape from their K-pop idol group category, their use of symbolism, self-expressiveness, visuality, and building alternative universes has conveyed intellectual stimulation keeping their loyal Army fans speculating.

"A Conversation With BTS" will give these talented artists a unique opportunity to share more about what matters to them and how life and music have changed since their attention-grabbing arrival on the world scene. Stay tuned for more…

BTS Begin 'Love Yourself: Answer' With Jin's "Epiphany"

The first taste of Love Yourself: Answer went online on Aug. 9, and if you weren't clear that the K-pop champs BTS believe you should love yourself — this message is on repeat. Sometimes fragmented and mysterious, like finding one's identity in a world of choices, this first tip from the monster-crew's latest comeback puts vocalist Jin at the intersection of worlds both real and alternative.

The calla lily and notebook both trace back to highlight reel symbolism that fans like BTS Army love to discuss, but the sense of going backward and forward, through time and through different versions of one's self, jumps out. The issue of being alright on the inside has been one of BTS' recurring themes, presented in many lights. In the septet's band-culture, it's also key to how to be a responsible, caring friend. The lyric speaks to the inner life of connecting to one's shining soul, beautiful even if inadequate, and working outward from that center.

LOVE YOURSELF series that began in March of 2016! Finally we've come to the end of 起承轉結 with 結 'Answer.' It feels like our work of 2 years and 5 months has reached the last stop. We've worked on this repackage album solely with the intention of fully enjoying it with you. + https://t.co/HyBTZ3MHZc

BTS has been the center of attention with Love Yourself: Tear, topping the Billboard 200 earlier this year, and the reincarnation of that album with new songs in Answer is set for release on Aug. 24. As their North American tour approaches, the group is likely to attract a huge focus again, as demonstrated by their recent addition of a stadium date at Citi Field in New York — a first and a coming-of-age for Korean musical entertainers.

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